


You, your playlist, or your note on my door, I don't know which one make me smile more

by Anonymous



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, M/M, oikawa is a twice stan because i said so, pharmacy student! sugawara, twice's songs reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29395176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: If Sugawara told anybody he studied with Twice's songs played in the background, he was pretty sure no one would believe him.But that was it, those were the songs playing now. Except those songs weren’t playing by himself, but by his next door, Oikawa Tooru....and somehow, that leads to the conversation through the notes between Sugawara and Oikawa.
Relationships: Oikawa Tooru/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: OiSuga Valentines Exchange 2021





	You, your playlist, or your note on my door, I don't know which one make me smile more

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amai_Deku](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amai_Deku/gifts).



If Sugawara told anybody he studied with Twice's songs played in the background, he was pretty sure no one would believe him.

But that was it, those were the songs playing now.  Except those songs weren’t playing by himself, but by his next door,  _ Oikawa Tooru. _

Back to three months ago, the former owner of that room moved out since he found a new place to work in Tokyo. That guy was such a good neighbor that Sugawara felt lonely as he left.

Until a month later, the loud noises were heard. First, they were just loud bangs at the door, not his, likely the one next to his. Sugawara didn’t care much, until he heard a man shouting - likely just talking to himself loudly. Sugawara didn’t want to think that the guy outside knew there was someone here who might be able to help him so he deliberately made the annoying noise until someone ran out of patience and helped him, but there was a possibility,  _ right? _

The thought of that made Sugawara decide to go check what was going on outside. He opened up his door, only to find one good looking brunet trying to break the door next to Sugawara’s.

“Umm hi?” Sugawara spoke first, that made the tall stranger stop kicking the door and noticed him.

“Oh, Hi! You live here?”

HIs face looked surprised and the voice was going the same way, like he didn’t expect the show up at all. This reaction just confirmed how wrong of Sugawara’s deduction was.

“Yes, I’m Sugawara Koushi. And who could you possibly be?”

“Hi, Sugawara. If you live in this room - then that would make me your new neighbor.”

The your-new-neighbor reached his hand forward, Sugawawa then did the handshake.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Oikawa Tooru.”

“Nice to meet you too. May I ask you what are you doing? I thought you were moving in, doesn’t that mean you are supposed to have your room key?”

“About that- “ Oikawa let out the embarrassments through his face and his voice “Well, I was in the middle of moving things in, then I was hungry, so I locked my door and when I’m back- “

“You realized you forgot your key in the room, got it” Sugawara cut him off ”Maybe you can get the copy one from the security?”

“Unfortunately,  _ that _ is the copy one.”

Sugawara then let out his sigh. It was not even a day and Oikawa already lost one key and forgot the other one in his own room. How in the earth could someone be this dumb?

“Wait here, give me a sec.”

Sugawara went back to his room, grabbed two paper clips, came back to Oikawa who watched him confusingly as he put one at the bottom of the key hole, and held it by his left hand. He then put another paper clip and raked it, repeated for a few more times until the door was unlocked.

“This has actually worked!” Oikawa said in surprise as the grey hair opened the door “I thought this only worked in spy movies! How did you know about this?”

“Guess.”

“Your parents are thieves, so they taught you as it’s the basic skill of a thief?”

Sugawara laughed. “Uh oh. You find out my secret.”

“Anyways, thank you for helping me. That’s very kind of you.”

“Actually, I just came to check the noises you make. I didn’t expect someone trying to break the door though.”

“Oh.” Oikawa suddenly felt guilty. “Sorry about that.”

“That’s fine, just make sure you don’t forget the key next time.” 

Sugawara smiled. He then noticed the boxes on the ground. Since the other stated that he hadn’t finished moving in yet, that could be Oikawa’s stuff. As a natural kind person he was, Sugawara decided he should help this guy.

“Do you need any help?”

Sugawara swore he saw the sparkles in the other’s eyes. “Really?”

“Why would I lie to you?”

“Okay, ” Oikawa accepted the help easily. “then could you please help me carry those boxes into my room? Thank you.” 

Oikawa had the audacity to not even decline his help as most Japanese people would do. Sugawara didn’t mind that since he accepted any help he was offered from the neighbors when he moved in last year too. He swore the day he was moving to new places was literally one of the most tiresome days ever to the point that he couldn’t move an inch after he finished decorating his new place.

“You sure you can do this on your own?” Sugawara asked as he finished moving all the boxes into the room.

“Of course. Thank you for your help, I’ll buy you something later!”

Sugawara nodded. Yet, still offered his help for one last time. “If you need my help, you can knock on my door. Okay?”

“Got it.” Oikawa responded.

Sugawara felt bad for a bit as he thought he should help his new neighbor more. But Oikawa really seemed to be fine on his own, so Sugawara left him alone, went back to his room and continued to spend time on twitter.

_ That was the first time he met Oikawa. _

_ And that was also the first time he heard Twice’s song from the next door. _

At first, he didn’t recognize those were their songs, until their iconic song ‘TT’ was played. Twice’s songs continued playing for at least an hour without any song from other artists. At this point, Sugawara can assume that Oikawa must be a Twice’s fan.

_ The biggest one, he would say. _

Sugawara decided not to warn his new neighbor about the loudness as he thought tidying things up was too tiring that Oikawa might need some upbeat and cheerful songs to cheer him up. Plus, this might be the only day Oikawa played Twice’s playlist for more than an hour. There was no one who could play the songs from the same artist out loud everyday. So when Oikawa bought him a strawberry shortcake as a gift in the next day, he didn’t say anything about it.

Guess what, he was wrong.

_ So. Damn. Wrong. _

Sugawara  _ swore _ he heard Twice’s song almost everyday, more specifically, at least five days a week, approximately two hours per time.

Sometimes, Oikawa played the upbeat ones which Sugawara was quite familiar to, since Twice was quite popular in Japan even to people who weren’t a kpop fan. Most of the times the upbeat songs were played, Oikawa’s singing can be heard as well. (Some might say that was literally shouting, but Sugawara respected people enough to call it a singing.) Sugawara bet the next door must sing and danced along, pretended he was a part of the girl group. The thoughts of that could be so funny that sometimes it made Sugawara laugh.

Sometimes, Oikawa played the slow ones, of course the non-fan like him never heard of those before. Sugawara guessed that the brunet played the slow ones only when he needed to focus on studying, which is bad, because sometimes the songs were too good that he wanted to know the song's name so he could played it by his own, but he didn’t want to interrupt when the other was studying. 

The brilliant idea then popped up on his mind, Sugawara decided to write down the song he wanted to know the name in post-it and left it at Oikawa’s front door.

The first note he ever wrote was:  _ This is Sugawara. I don’t want to interrupt you when you’re studying so I didn’t knock on your door. But I really want to know what song did you play at 8:23 P.M.? The one that has the cute voice (Sana, right?) speaking at the end of the song. I know this is weird but I really like that song.  _

And when he opened his door in the morning, ready to go to the college, two reply notes from the other can be found.

The first note said:  _ I didn’t know I played the song so loud that you can hear it TT It didn’t disturb you, right? you can tell me if I do! Anyways, the song’s name is Jaljayo good night by Twice I think? Please let me know if it’s not the song you’re looking for, so I could help you find the correct one. _

Maybe Oikawa just realized he wanted to let Sugawara know why he didn’t just knock the door hence he left the second note:  _ I found the note at 2A.M. when I went out to buy a snack. I’m sure you are already asleep so I think I should leave you the note! _

For some reason that even Sugawara himself couldn’t explain, the notes just made him smile from ear to ear. He didn’t knock on the door or write the reply note right away since he had a class in about half an hour and he didn’t want to be late. So he kept the notes in his bag, listened to the song he just asked for the name (luckily, Oikawa gave him the exact song he looked for) all the way from his place to the college, then wrote a thank you note and left it on Oikawa’s front door.

Just like that, the conversation through the notes between Sugawara and Oikawa began.

Well, that wasn’t the only consequence after the first conversation through the note was made. The songs from the other room were harder to be heard. Sugawara’s assumption was that Oikawa might be afraid of offending him so he lowered the volume. Yet, Oikawa was stupid enough to the point where he couldn’t realize that his singing still be heard. So instead of hearing Twice’s song with a man's voice in the background, Sugawara heard the man... shouted.

_ Welp, at least his neighbor was trying to be considerate. _

Luckily, the case didn’t go on for that long. Only a week after then, the women’s voices that he somehow got familiar with and the melody can be heard along with the man's voice.

At first, Sugawara didn’t really know many Twice’s songs nor knew much about them as well. But now, as he heard every, if not, almost every Twice’s song existed, he could say he knew their songs even better than some of their fans would.

_ If this was the new method of luring people to the fandom, Sugawara must have said that it totally worked. _

The conversation through the notes slightly changed from finding the songs’ names becoming something unrelated to Twice, something that made them know each other better, something that made Sugawara feel close to the next door even though they barely talked face to face.

That sounded completely odd considering they lived literally next to each other and studied at the same college - Oikawa never really said it explicitly, Sugawara used his detective skill deduced it from the way Oikawa described his college. Maybe because their routines were different, Sugawara left his room around 8A.M. and mostly went back in the evening, while Oikawa only went back after it got dark and never woke up around the time Sugawara was about to leave for college.

The only situation they could actually see each other face was when some event that made one or two of them couldn’t follow the usual routine occurred. Like when Sugawara arrived at his room later than usual due to partying or studying with his friends for the test, there were chances Oikawa arrived at the same time as him or went out his room to buy the snack. The little chat can be held for a mere minute before they separated to do their own business. The verbal conversation mostly was a small talk or the continuation from the note rather than the actual conversation. Strangely, Sugawara didn’t find talking to Oikawa face to face being awkward at all.

“And yet, you guys are still talking through the notes rather than in person.”

And that was the reaction of his closest pharmacy student friend,  _ Yaku Morisuke _ , after Sugawara answered the question ‘Why do you look so happy these days, anything good happened?’ with a long story while they were waiting for the professor. (Students tip #1 : always come to the class before your professor, or else they will never let you study in peace.)

“It’s more comfortable that way.”

Yaku looked a bit unimpressed by the answer.

“Seriously, why do you have to complicate things? If you’re interested in him, just knock the damn door and ask him out. You’re not living in an early 2000s romcom movie, you know?”

“First, I’m not interested in him. Second, I don’t remember any 2000s romcom movie that has their protagonists talking through the notes.”

“Whatever, ” Yaku shrugged, too tired to argue back. “How does it feel though?”

“What?”

“Studied with some upbeat songs played in the background. Usually you don’t play songs while studying. Do you?”

Sugawara paused for seconds to think before answering. “Weird, good kind of weird.”

He really meant it when he said  _ good kind of weird _ . Sugawara prefered studying in silence, no noise, so he could pay full attention to what he was studying instead of getting distracted by the lyrics or the melody of the songs. However, when Oikawa was playing Twice’s song, Sugawara found it cute and somehow was able to stay focused on his studying. He even lowkey missed it if no song was playing during the usual time.

“I don’t think the word weird has a good kind.”

“Then it has now.” Sugawara said. 

The conversation ended after the professor entered the class. The lecture began, the focusing moved from, Yaku's words,  _ the 2000s romcom vibes love story _ to organic chemistry.

Hours past before the bell rang. The professor announced there will be a test on Friday, which means the students had less than a week to prepare themselves.

As good students Sugawara and Yaku were, they decided to go to the library and started studying almost immediately after the class ended until the library closed. Since organic chemistry wasn’t really his thing, Sugawara needed to study a lot more than usual. He planned to study more after he took a shower, maybe showering could make him look less like a walking dead as he was right now.

Sugawara was about to open his door, he then noticed that his door had no note left on. His eyes automatically landed on the door next to his. 

Yaku’s words then slipped in his mind.  _ ‘If you’re interested in him, just knock the damn door and ask him out.’  _ Sugawara still insisted that he wasn’t interested in that good looking neighbor... _ yet  _ so he had no plan of asking that man out, especially when he had to study for the test. But  _ knock the damn door  _ sounded… somehow interesting.

_...should he do it? _

But what should he say when the door was opened? ‘ _ You didn’t leave any note to tell me how you have been, so I’m here, asking you in person’ _ sounded completely weird. But he couldn’t think of any topic to start a conversation.

Maybe that wasn’t a good idea at all. Maybe he should not do it and let it be the way it was-

“Oh, Hi! You arrive late today!”

Just when the gray hair decided to stop thinking about his next door, Oikawa suddenly opened that door in his plain shirt and cyan shorts, holding a brown wallet and keychain in his right hand.

“And you arrived earlier than usual, normally you wouldn’t arrive until past nine.”

“That’s exaggerated.” Oikawa pout.

“Where are you going though, buying some snacks?” Sugawara asked. He guessed that by the brunet’s usual behavior and the outfit that seemed too casual for having a night out.

“You know me too well, huh”

“You are too easy to read.” 

Sugawara teased back in his trying-to-be-cheerful voice. But he guessed that he couldn't do it very well since Oikawa seemed like he was a bit worried after he said that.

“You seem tired today, are you okay?”

_ Seem tired? _ Oikawa was too polite.  _ Seems like shit _ was pretty much more accurate.

“Not really.” Sugawara answered, trying not to let his exhaustion be expressed in his voice. “I have an organic chemistry test this Friday.”

“So you study really hard and look like this, I see.” Oikawa understood that quickly. Sugawara wondered if the _ ‘this’ _ Oikawa mentioned meant  _ bad,  _ but he knew Oikawa would be too polite to answer it honestly. “Do you need anything at the mart? I’ll go buy it for you.”

“No, I don't. Thanks anyways.”

Sugawara thanked as he tried to end the conversation and went back into his room. Not that he didn’t want to talk to Oikawa, he just wanted to rest rather than talking.

“Rest well, Mr.Refreshing!”

Oikawa’s voice can be heard even after he closed the door. Too bad that the door was already shut so Sugawara didn’t answer him that he planned to study more, not resting. Second thought, maybe tell him nothing was a better choice. Or else Sugawara might have to hear the other complaining with concern.

And the thought of that, like every time he saw the note from Oikawa, made Sugawara have a big smile on his face before he realized.

(But wait, what did Oikawa just call him?)

Thursday arrived way too fast in his feelings, Sugawara was still nervous and felt that he wasn’t ready for the test. Even Yaku told him that he studied hard enough and they would be fine.

_ It’s just a test! Even if you got a low score it’s fine! _ That was Yaku’s word when he expressed his pressure and nervousness. Of course Sugawara was aware of that. But maybe because he was bad at this subject, or his perfectionism self said he needed to get a high score, or both mixed. He still couldn’t just chill off and relax.

That was the reason why Sugawara decided to study a little more on Thursday night, to make sure that he was really ready for the test the next day. 

The gray haired set the atmosphere and the surrounding in the way he knew it suited studying. Light? Checked. Temperature? Checked. Different shades of color, especially pink, pens? Checked. No disturbing noise? He didn’t hear any song played from the next door lately and likely today too, so checked. 

Study time began.

_...or so he thought. _

Only half an hour passed after he read the first page, Twice’s songs that he was familiar with and didn’t miss at all were playing, not by himself, of course. The volume was lower than usual but it could still be heard. Yes, Sugawara once said to Yaku that he still could study when soft songs were playing but this wasn’t the case. Upbeat or slow songs, Sugawara didn’t care, he just didn’t want any disturbing noise at all as he needed to stay focused right now.

He knocked twice (No, he didn't do this on purpose as a pun referring to Oikawa’s favorite artists.) and waited for a while until his neighbor answered. The brunet looked quite surprised seeing him at the front door, which is very understandable since Sugawara never knocked on Oikawa's door before. If Oikawa, who also never knocked on his door, appeared in front of his front door like this,he wouldn’t act any different.

“It’s rare to see you in front of my door like this.” Oikawa was the one who spoke first with a grin on his face. Somehow, Sugawara could feel the happiness in those voices.

“I’ve never knocked on your door before, haven’t I?”

“And… What makes you decide to knock on my door for the first time?” Oikawa asked. He then gasped as if he realized something and changed his smiley face to worried and panicked face quickly. “Hold on. Has anything bad happened to you? Do you need any help? Or you come here to tell me some urgent news? It must be bad things,  _ really bad things, _ or else you would just leave me the note.”

“Calm down. It’s not that bad.”

Sugawara initially intended to teased him a bit since he always did that when he talked in the notes. But after seeing Oikawa was about to freak out as if he just accidentally killed someone like this, maybe going straight to the topic was a better choice.

“How bad is  _ ‘not that bad’ _ ?”

“Well, It’s about the songs.”

“Oh.” Oikawa seemed a bit more relaxed. “The name of this song? It called-“

“ _ Turtle _ , I know. I already asked you before.” Sugawara cut him off, tried to tell him the actual reason but then got interrupted.

“I thought you would forget. But even if you forget, it’s fine! I know you can’t remember every song you asked me, those are over twenty songs.” Oikawa said in a lively tone, until he noticed that the grayed hair seemed quite unpleasant so he shut his mouth. Thinking for any reason that could possibly bring his neighbor here. “Am I playing the song too loud today?”

“Yes.” Sugawara answered. “I have a test tomorrow and I really need to focus on my studying. Can you please lower the volume?”

“Yes, of course! Sorry for disturbing you.” Oikawa bowed as he sincerely felt sorry. “I know you have a test tomorrow but I thought slow songs were okay since you never ask me to stop playing the songs.”

“I can study with slow songs, yes. But when I really need to focus, I prefer studying in silence like in a library.”

“You should tell me sooner! Next time you have an organic chemistry test, please tell me. I’ll make sure that you won't hear any disturbing noises!”

Sugawawa’s eyes widened, surprised as his neighbor could recognize what subject he was studying.

“You remembered?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

_ Because what subject he was going to have a test was such a small detail that normal neighbors wouldn’t even care? _ He wasn’t sure either. But gotta admitted, Oikawa remembered this small thing made him somehow happy.

“Anyways,” Sugawawa changed the subject. “Where have you been for the whole week? I didn’t get any note or heard any songs from you.”

“You missed me?” Oikawa suddenly flirted.

And did Sugawara blushed? No. (...he hoped so)

“And what if I did?”

“Then I would be so glad.” Oikawa smiled, showing that he really meant it when he said  _ ‘glad’. _ “I went to my classmate’s room for study. I just had a test yesterday.”

“Did you get good marks?”

“I will get my test paper back tomorrow.” Oikawa sighed. “I don’t think I did well this time.”

“I know you will get a good score.” Sugawara encouraged him, making the cute on the other’s face return.

“I know you will do well on tomorrow's test too.” Oikawa encouraged his small neighbor back. “Don’t stress out too much, okay? Don’t go to bed late, have a proper sleep and don’t forget your breakfast tomorrow. Got it?”

“Got it.” Sugawara giggled as he assured his neighbor who was acting and saying things like a caring mom. “If you don’t mind, I’ll go back on studying.”

He’d like to talk to the brunet more, but he really needed to go back to studying. That will make him able to finish his studying early and be able to go to bed before midnight, making him get enough sleep and didn’t get sleepy when he had a test.

“Good luck on your tomorrow’s test!”

“Thank you.”

Sugawara thanked him and went back to his room with a grin on his face. With Oikawa’s encouragement, Sugawara felt like his heart was fluff up, almost bursting out.

This wasn’t the first time Oikawa said something like he did care to Sugawara, but this was the first time that it wasn’t through the letter on the note. So maybe it was normal if this hit…  _ differently. _

_ With this kind of encouragement, he was so sure he'll do well on his test tomorrow. _

Friday morning arrived. Sugawara woke up a bit earlier than his normal day, this made him have enough time to chit-chat to Yaku while having a proper breakfast.

Sugawara opened his door and found something he didn’t know he missed so much stuck on the door,  _ the note.  _ He quickly pulled that off and read it.

It was written by the handwriting that he saw so often to the point where he could recognize the owner of it without any signature:  _ I sorry once again for disturbing you with the noise I made. Good luck on your test today! _

_ ‘Today’ _ ? Sugawara guessed that Oikawa expected him to find this note in the morning, before he went to college. Or Oikawa just wrote this before he went out and stuck this note on the door.

Sugawara was about to put the note in his bag, except that he noticed that there was something written in the back in smaller letters as if the writer of the note didn’t want this message to be found:  _ If you like to talk more than just through the notes, this is my line-ID! Oikawa_grandking feel free to add me! _

Sugawara didn’t even take a second before he decided to add him as a friend.

_ Sugawara was pretty sure he’d get good marks on organic chemistry today. _

He didn’t know he could put  _ good marks _ and  _ organic chemistry _ in the same sentence since he was quite bad at this topic. Maybe because he studied a lot harder  _ and had some good encouragement _ so he did pretty well today, hoping that all the effort he put in didn’t waste.

“Seems like the test went well today, huh”

Just before he could open his front door and go lie down on the bed, someone stopped him from doing so by those words. Sugawara turned around to the source of the familiar sweet playful voice. His brunet neighbor was there, walking in the hallway towards him.

Seeing the smiley face, Sugawara guessed that the day went well for Oikawa too. “And seems like you got good marks from your previous test.”

“Correct.” Oikawa’s smile was even wider when he confirmed that. “Good to see that today went well for us two.”

“Same here. Thanks for the note, also.”

Oikawa’s face slightly changed when Sugawara mentioned the note.

“So you already read the note, right? Do you check it well enough? I mean - there’s something written at the other side of the note-”

Sugawara said nothing, staring as his tall neighbor spoke. And that made Oikawa get even more anxious as it was clearly shown in his voice.

“B-but if you didn’t see it then it’s fine. Nothing special written there.”

“Then why wouldn’t you just tell me what was written there?”

“It’s about-” Oikawa shattered. “It’s an- um-”

Sugawara sighed, wondered why this guy could do verbal flirting so easily but couldn’t even ask for his line ID in person.

“Your line ID, I already read it.”

Oikawa seemed a bit more relieved but still looked quite uneasy. “Then why didn't you send me any text? Are you uncomfortable with that or...?”

“No! Of course it’s not like that.” Sugawara quickly rejected that. “It’s because I think we should talk to each other face-to-face like  _ this _ more.”

Sugawara felt quite shy as he said that. He took a look at his neighbor's face, he seemed pretty surprised as Sugawara said that, yet, he didn’t say anything and waited for Sugawara to continue.

“I mean- talking through notes was nice. But maybe- should we step up and start talking to each other like this more? I like seeing your face and hearing your voice while we are talking, the notes and the texts can’t do that.”

Seconds passed before Oikawa answered with a soft smile decorated on his beautiful face. “Glad that both of us are agreeing on leveling up from how we have been.”

“ _...we _ do?”

“ _ We _ do.” Oikawa repeated. They then bursted out their laughter together as relieved since they thought the same thing.

Sugawara decided to be the one who made the first move.

“How about you go to dinner with me tonight? We can talk about my today’s test and your score there. We can talk about our favourite Twice’s song too if you want to.”

Oikawa laughed, smiled so widely when he responded to that lovely invitation. “I’d love to.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing fanfic in English and first time joining the exchange event thus I'm so excited. Thank you to the mods for creating this wonderful event!  
> This fic is actually inspired from one tiktok vid I found months ago on fyp and couldn't get it out of my head. (And I couldn’t find it anywhere, help TT) I selected Twice as Oikawa's favorite group since even non kpop stan (Sugawara, in this case.) would still know their name and they have some good soft songs to write about.  
> I hope you guys enjoyed this, please leave a comment if you liked it!
> 
> P.S. don’t forget to check out their songs I mentioned in this fic, it’s really good!


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